Sept. 19: The ninth anniversary of the untimely death (though he would correct me: all was in God's timing, that and all the cool geniuses died young) of a man many (of which I am one) consider to have made a profound effect on their spiritual outlook: Richard Wayne Mullins. He was killed on that date in 1997 when a semi collided with his Jeep. He was 41, and one of the most needed voices within contemporary Christian music. May his memory be eternal.
Allergies: My goodness. Usually I experience minor stuffiness, drainage, etc. at the beginning of Spring, beginning of Fall. Not this year. It's a week and a half and I'm just now getting past the worst of it. Unfortunately, this hit during the last week of the grading period, which means that a lot of the end-of-period grading I usually get done has now piled up on me due to my early-to-bed ways (which is also my excuse for not blogging). Late nights ahead this weekend, but glory be to God, I'm now able to tackle it...
Good conversations: A catechumen at our parish and I talked about what exactly "Israel" means for the Christian...who is it, what is it, what does it have to do with that patch-o'-land in the Middle East...actually won him over, which doesn't happen very often...
Audra and I talking about how my native speaker situation (looks to be unresolved for good, folks) is constraining me; looks to be an opportunity for growth, though it is highly inconvenient.
Christmas plans already...gift lists, travel plans, which services will attend, where, and at which parish...ugh. The fast beforehand will be a welcome preparation for receiving the Incarnate One. Good to think about this, even in late September...
4 comments:
I'm glad you are ok, sorry to hear about the sniffles and allergies. I thought living in the Southwest was supposed to alleviate that?
Prayers on the new path.
Am I the only one who finds it kind of morbidly amusing that the title of this post is "Thought I'd died, huh?" and then it has a picture of a dead musician right beneath the title?
ROTFL!
Riiiiight..."Hey, y'all just THOUGHT I'd been dead for nine years! GOTCHA!"
I thought the same as Raoul. Nice set-up, even if unintentional.
Anyways, I should introduce myself before going further. I'm Stephen, the wanderer. You may have seen me a while back commenting at the Orthodork Cafe (which is how I came across your blog).
I was wondering if you could explain when you have time the Orthodox position on Israel, particularly of its use in the new testament, in Revelations, and in James 1:1 ("to the twelve tribes in the dispersion"). I'm not necessarily asking for a point by point explaination - even just a nudge in the right direction would be fine. I'm mainly interested because I have met up with a psudo-christian group called the Twelve Tribes that believe, through reading the bible (how else?), that Jesus and the apostles set up a new nation of Israel to replace the old, rebellious one, and that it is only when there is an obeidiant nation of Israel that Jesus will return. They content that the early church quickly lost this vision (hence Christianity since then has been a joke, and the "Christian system" is just as useless as any other religion), and that they are re-establishing the Twelve Tribes as the pure spotless lamb so that Christ can return. Personally, though I love their lifestyle, I don't buy much of their theology, but I don't know a whole lot on how otherwise to interprete the Israel references in the new testament.
Looking back it I see that I am asking a lot. So if you don't have time that is fine. God bless.
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